But hard doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s impossible to do it yourself. For any aspiring webmasters hoping to get into the e-commerce game, this post will serve as the guide to ease the process a bit with helpful tips and recommendations.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get right into it.<\/p>\n
The Process of Building<\/h2>\n
Before even considering to launch your website, it is crucial to spend some time away from the computer and build your idea<\/strong>. Consider the following:<\/p>\n These are all vital topics of discussion which you should consider deeply. It will also help a lot to build a brand identity<\/strong> in these early stages of development. You can purchase the matching domain name ahead of time<\/strong> to secure your company name and logo.<\/p>\n Setting up an online would also require you to set up some profiles<\/strong>. A new Google account<\/a> can help on multiple levels for a new corporation.<\/p>\n With Google, you\u2019ll gain a brand new email account under Gmail<\/a> and access to each of Google\u2019s apps.<\/p>\n This includes Google Docs<\/a> and Google Analytics<\/a> for tracking your web page traffic. YouTube accounts also tie into Google via OAuth, so it\u2019s possible to market your store with video media too.<\/p>\n Once you have a rough idea of how your shop will work, it\u2019s time to make some bold steps. Registering a domain name and finding a web host aren\u2019t challenging tasks. Yet, they are monumentally essential steps in the overall launch process.<\/p>\n Spend a lot of time considering your domain<\/strong> before purchase. Once you buy the domain name, it\u2019s usually set for one year (or more if you choose), so you\u2019re stuck with it!<\/p>\n I am a fan of NameSilo<\/a> for registering new domains. Their user account lets you set up a portfolio and organize your domain name<\/strong> into different structures, and the domain search is quick and produces to-the-point results.<\/p>\n When it comes to hosting, you\u2019ll want to consider the backend language<\/strong> which your online shop will run and proper server settings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have any preference or don\u2019t care, I recommend sticking with PHP<\/strong>. It\u2019s open-source and supported in mostly 99% of server environments. But make sure that any hosting account you purchase should support PHP and MySQL databases<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Some hosting services like Hostgator<\/a> and Bluehost<\/a> offer incredible solutions for first-time webmasters. The average cost is $100-$150\/year for unlimited storage and bandwidth.<\/p>\n Now some web hosts do cap their storage and bandwidth limit. But for even the cheapest solutions, you\u2019ll generally be using well under their rules.<\/p>\n For more precise guidance, follow our post<\/a> to help you choose the best web hosting service based on ten essential factors, and consumer guide<\/a> on understanding the very truth about web hosting and tips to avoid some annoying hosting troubles.<\/p>\n There are two main categories to choose from for building an online shop.<\/p>\n Hosted solutions<\/strong> are companies that provide you everything you need on the backend and host the e-commerce script on their servers. This means you won\u2019t need to do any programming or file uploads of any kind. You will, however, still need a domain name to redirect and give your shop a distinct URL.<\/p>\n You can also work with licensed scripts<\/strong>, both paid and open-source. These kinds of e-commerce systems are easily customized and make up the majority of online web stores. Even if you aren\u2019t a programmer at heart, it\u2019s a straightforward process to download and re-upload script files onto your hosting server and follow some installation instructions.<\/p>\n But when you are working with money and payments online, there are many security risks to consider<\/strong>. If you feel uncomfortable taking on that much responsibility, it may be wise to choose a hosted solution.<\/p>\n You can talk to company representatives<\/strong> to figure out site security. The customer\u2019s overall experience and safety should be held regarding your bottom-line decision<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Many of the hosted solutions can provide a fantastic experience to your visitors with very little work on your end. The administration panel is also uniform to all other scripts, which should give you an easy interface to upload photos and add catalog entries.<\/p>\n There are so many choices out there; it\u2019s hard to pick just one. But I\u2019ve included only the ones that stand out from the rest. They\u2019re viable options for the average webmaster who isn\u2019t interested in messing around with FTP and programming IDE\u2019s.<\/p>\n You do lose a lot of opportunity for customization, but then you\u2019re gaining added security and personal staff support<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You can check out Shopify for yourself to see this fantastic service in action. Their website is designed beautifully and contains some beautiful demos. If you are on edge with choosing any company, Shopify may be the best option.<\/p>\n Some of their best features include a personal app store<\/strong>, SSL security<\/strong>, unlimited server bandwidth<\/strong>, a custom mobile template<\/strong>, and a whole lot more!<\/p>\n This is one script which offers a lot more user customizations than others. In the admin backend panel, you may choose between dozens of themes<\/strong> to implement onto your live website.<\/p>\n If you understand HTML\/CSS, it\u2019s possible to edit the raw website design online. The editor is similar to the WordPress theme\u2019s editor and offers a straightforward UI for beginners.<\/p>\n Shopify also includes live chat and contacts 24\/7<\/strong> for any support. Check out their vast examples page<\/a> if you\u2019d like to see a few Shopify-powered stores. By looking at some templates, it\u2019s difficult even to tell what script they\u2019re running.<\/p>\n Pricing can range from very cheap to very expensive throughout their five plans. Compare details<\/a> and see if any would stack up to your credentials. Ideally, I would recommend Shopify if you have some standard knowledge of HTML and are looking for a fully-accountable staff to back up your new launch.<\/p>\n For small businesses, Yahoo! Small Business may also catch your attention. The layout for your standard Y!SB account is relatively straightforward and easy to customize. They provide custom traffic analytics<\/strong> and split testing<\/strong> right from your admin panel.<\/p>\n The most popular payment gateways are supported<\/strong>, including PayPal, money orders, checks, and credit cards.<\/p>\n Yahoo! is an excellent company to partner with if you\u2019re choosing to go the hosted route. They spur massive bouts of traffic through organic search and ad clicks, quite honestly only rivaled by Google.<\/p>\n You can set up a small marketing account<\/strong> and help spread the word of your new store; additionally, if you\u2019re looking to work with a skilled web designer or developer, the small business network includes these features. Yahoo! can practically manage your entire store deployment and launch.<\/p>\n The BigCommerce shop software could be compared to Shopify with trimmed features. They offer a clean user interface<\/strong>, which clears up a lot of confusion in the signup process. It\u2019s a breeze to add in new features<\/strong>, products<\/strong>, users<\/strong>, and take payments online in just a few minutes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Granted, if you are a developer, the team has spent time building an online API. Check out the integration and API<\/a> settings on their website for details about page plugins.<\/p>\n You may include details from many accounts<\/strong> around the web, such as Facebook, eBay, 2Checkout, MasterCard, and PayPal. The staffs offer plenty of template customizations<\/strong> to choose from, so you\u2019ll never be worried about branding.<\/p>\n To see a few stores in action, check out their live store\u2019s showcase<\/a>, updated regularly, and spurring some of the most beautiful e-commerce designs in modern Internet layouts.<\/p>\n There are a lot of features<\/a> to go through when you\u2019re first working with BigCommerce. Consider emailing the developers<\/strong> or get in touch with somebody at the company<\/strong> to answer questions you may have.<\/p>\n I have only heard very positive reviews about their customer service and support for clients.<\/p>\n On the flip side to pre-hosted solutions, it may be easier for developers to work within their boundaries. Of the many scripts online to choose from, there is only a handful worthy of testing.<\/p>\n Although I\u2019ve included 4 of my personal favorites here, check Google and do a bit of research if nothing suits you, alternatively check out our featured open source e-commerce shopping carts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Each website launch is unique and will require unique conditions that another e-commerce solution may provide. In popularity, these four scripts rank very high, so I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll find most things you need.<\/p>\n Possibly one of the best-known brands for e-commerce scripts on the web, Zen Cart is written in PHP and supports mostly all hosting environments. It\u2019s free to download and install<\/strong> on as many websites as you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n The only retributions<\/strong> which they require are leaving the \u201cPowered by Zen Cart\u201d link open in the footer area.<\/p>\n Working with Zen Cart provides connections to other services. Some of these are included as modules<\/strong>, and it\u2019s possible to download them from their website. Others are simply companies that have tied into the Zen Cart software.<\/p>\n Check out their personal recommended services<\/a> list to see if anything jumps out.<\/p>\n If you know API development yourself, there\u2019s a pure XHTML templating system<\/strong> applied to each website. It is incredibly easy for your standard web developer to create a custom theme.<\/p>\n Additionally, the support community is alive and continually buzzing<\/strong>. Zen Cart has personally sponsored an entire wiki<\/a> devoted to the script and common topics. Their support forums<\/a> are also often active with helpful members.<\/p>\n You can ask questions ranging from setup and installation to custom module controls.<\/p>\n Magento has developed an excellent script for e-commerce websites. Their whole script is written in PHP and includes plenty of details for getting started.<\/p>\n Indeed, non-programmers can work with the Magento suite. But I would recommend checking out another option if you aren\u2019t at least well-versed in HTML\/CSS.<\/p>\n Truly those looking to customize an amazing store with brilliant functionality<\/strong> should check out their product features<\/a> and weigh the options. It won\u2019t be a simple task to learn the Magento backend; however, if you are familiar with PHP or a similar programming language, you should be very comfortable within 2-3 weeks.<\/p>\n This is one company that provides a lot of support for users<\/strong>. Aside from the free edition, there are many alternative options that you can pay per license. Enterprise<\/strong> and Professional<\/strong> edition stand out as the two best-featured scripts.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re indecisive, check their charts on the comparison page<\/a> and choose what you think is best suited for your business need.<\/p>\n To get started with your learning, spend a bit of time learning about their system<\/strong>, which includes screencast videos<\/a> and some technical documentation<\/a>. One area the Magento system isn\u2019t lacking is in the documentation.<\/p>\n Credit card payments are possibly the largest among all modes of payment online. Many digital sources like Google and PayPal have started to corner the market, but credit card companies are still raking in the profits. And it\u2019s evident as credit cards provide a simple solution<\/strong> for your customers and you to pay online.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll probably want to sign up for two different accounts and include your new business name on file. An Internet merchant account<\/strong> is used to receive funds over the web for goods or services.<\/p>\n Similarly, a payment gateway<\/strong> or payment provider<\/strong> is a service that connects your store with your merchant account. This means you\u2019ll be able to accept instant payments<\/strong> via credit card whenever your customers buy something.<\/p>\n To sign up for a merchant account, you may try checking your local bank<\/strong>. Banks offer a signup process to credit your website and create an Internet-based merchant account.<\/p>\n However, if this isn\u2019t an option, then try a merchant account provider<\/strong>. These 3rd parties work as the middle man transferring payments from your site to the bank of your choice<\/strong>. There are a few merchants to choose from. I\u2019ve listed the most popular companies below:<\/p>\n After you have successfully created a merchant account, you\u2019ll have to select a gateway<\/strong>. These are companies which securely transfer the data that your customers input into your merchant account.<\/p>\n Some banks provide you with the gateway, although there are plenty of other options to choose from, as well. The most credible company for those based in the United States is Authorize<\/a>.<\/p>\n Their website includes some standard information and forms which should help clear up any questions you have regarding their services.<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t taking such direct payments from clients, it may be easier to work in the short term. Digital payment methods have become a lot easier to work within the past decade.<\/p>\n In this regard, PayPal<\/a> is the apparent leader and can be featured on almost all of the most popular e-commerce empires, with strong assisting guides laying everywhere, even from Hongkiat<\/a>. Amazon<\/a> and eBay<\/a> are another two best known for this feature.<\/p>\n Many of the runner-up services work just as well as PayPal but haven\u2019t gained enough attention. Specifically, Google Pay<\/a> offers a very secure and speedy transaction process.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re already using Gmail or have a Google Account<\/a>, it\u2019s simple to tie into a new Google Checkout account. Their backend supports widgets<\/strong>, which you can add to your page for a more beautiful design.<\/p>\n Both PayPal and Google Pay support solutions for invoicing<\/strong>. This can be useful if you\u2019re planning on purchasing modules or further domains. Try staying with a single account<\/strong> and use this for all your business transactions online. It\u2019s a lot quicker than waiting for payments or working through shady non-secured payment pages.<\/p>\n After you\u2019ve got a domain, hosting, and you can view your script live online, then you\u2019ve made it far! Moving past this process, you\u2019re merely required to perform some maintenance and building of website structures. Not too bad for a first e-commerce setup.<\/p>\n Familiarize yourself with the administrator panel<\/strong> and how to work with product pages<\/strong>. Your viewers must receive the best user experience on your website and hopefully land the sale.<\/p>\n If you notice any image size limits or set proportions, consider spending some time pre-cropping your product images<\/strong>. Or at the very least, standardize the image size<\/strong> so your products will display evenly in rows\/columns.<\/p>\n Along with product listings, you\u2019ll want to begin working on your page copy<\/strong>. Written content on your website is vitally important to get your message across<\/strong> and land sales<\/strong>. Visitors will be interested to hear about your company, and many will hope to get in contact with you.<\/p>\n These are just a few base pages to consider building, but you may focus on a few more as time goes on. For example, a privacy policy<\/strong> page is significant concerning how you\u2019ll handle user information.<\/p>\n After this point, your first shop should be online and full of new content. Congratulations! It\u2019s a complicated process to build and launch a full-scale e-commerce solution. But now the fun picks up as you start taking orders and marketing.<\/p>\n Nobody is going to find your website without some form of marketing. If you haven\u2019t signed up for a Google account yet, I highly recommend creating one for Google Analytics<\/a>. They provide completely free<\/strong> tracking software, which boasts some incredible features<\/a> you can\u2019t find anywhere else!<\/p>\n With their tools, you can find your most trafficked pages and biggest referring websites<\/strong>. Alternatively, you can also try out some reliable analytic tools<\/a> to find the one which best suits you.<\/p>\n If you feel that a professional marketing strategy would provide some prosperous results, I recommend taking help from publishing agencies, some of the best are Google<\/strong>, Microsoft<\/strong>, and Yahoo!<\/strong><\/p>\n Among the top publishing agencies, Google AdWords<\/a> is the most famous and trusted amongst hundreds of marketers \u2013 and for a good reason! Google AdWords provides large traffic numbers and laser-targeted click results<\/strong> for whatever products you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n Additionally, Microsoft\u2019s AdCenter<\/a> has taken off the ground in recent months. These are viable options for smaller online stores with a much lower marketing budget. You\u2019ll be able to afford a lot more ad clicks and garner attention from a broad audience.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve run a few successful marketing campaigns, your traffic numbers will slowly rise, and you\u2019ll be well on your way to ensure success for your online e-commerce shop.<\/p>\n So this was a final walkthrough of the major steps for creating your first e-commerce store. It\u2019s not an easy process, and even professional web designers struggle when sitting down to create new e-commerce stores. But once you\u2019ve gone through this a few times, things will seem a lot more efficient.<\/p>\n The solutions offered here are just some of the many opportunities for e-commerce developers. Additionally, if you have tips or strategies for launching an online store, please share them in the discussion section below, we do appreciate them!<\/p>\n Here are more e-commerce related posts<\/strong> we previously published:<\/p>\n E-commerce has given rise to thousands of new digital web stores that sell both physical and digital products to a global marketplace. For an online buyer, the most crucial aspect of an e-commerce website is authenticity and security, as there are new frauds and scams every other day. Setting up a web store requires careful…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3411],"tags":[2156,2369],"topic":[4523,4521],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
![\"google-account\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/google-account.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nRegistering a Domain<\/h2>\n
Choosing a Web Hosting Service<\/h2>\n
Yahoo! Small Business<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"hostgator\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/hostgator.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nChoosing your E-Commerce Package<\/h2>\n
Hosted Solutions<\/h3>\n
Licensed Scripts<\/h3>\n
Hosted E-Commerce Solutions<\/h2>\n
Shopify<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"shopify\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/shopify.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"shopify-examples\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/shopify-examples.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nYahoo! Small Business<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"yahoo-small-business\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/yahoo-small-business.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nBigCommerce<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"bigcommerce\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/bigcommerce.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"bigcommerce-api\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/bigcommerce-api.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nCustom-Owned Scripts<\/h2>\n
Zen Cart<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"zencart\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/zencart.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nMagento<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"magento\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/magento.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"magento-product-features\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/magento-product-features.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nTaking Merchant Payments Online<\/h2>\n
\n
Alternative Payment Methods<\/h2>\n
![\"paypal\"](\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/setting-up-your-first-online-shop\/paypal.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nAdd Content and Products<\/h2>\n
Marketing and Beyond<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
More<\/h2>\n
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